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| He can hit homers, too. |
Not only did the Astros lose to the Reds for what seemed like the 50th time already this year, but Houston starter Aneury Rodriguez was tagged for two homers, one by opposing hurler Travis Wood and one by fill-in 1B Ramon Hernandez. The Astros' lone run came on a fluky round tripper by Hunter Pence in the bottom of the 8th. Pence drove a pitch by reliever Logan Ondrusek to deep right field, and it only sneaked over the wall thanks to a misread by the lumbering Jay Bruce. The ball glanced off his glove and landed in the hands of a rather surprised looking fan. Don't worry kid, every Astros homer is a surprise to me.
Yes, I thought that the team would be better than last year's club, but now I'm starting to realize that the experts might have been spot on by picking the 2011 club to finish in last place in the NL Central, behind even the lowly Pirates. (If you think we've got it bad, Astros fans, Pittsburgh is over .500 at this point in the season for the first time in seven years. It can always get worse.)
Rodriguez will be a difficult riddle to solve for the rest of the season, or however long he stays in the number 5 spot in the rotation. His line for the night was 5 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 3 K, 2 BB. While no one expected him to come out and throw near-perfect ball again, it was rather disheartening to see the young righty pitch so poorly. The homers didn't worry me so much as the location problems. It was something that was evident in the first start, but was more heavily exacerbated in this one. Rodriguez is mostly a fastball guy, so locating his pitches is a must. Unfortunately, he left a lot of his balls over the plate, which usually results in dingers, even by pitchers who haven't gotten a hit all season.
The Astros bats are faring no better than the pitching these days either. While it seems that many of the last couple games will have one or the other working, both the pitching and hitting were ineffective today, as the team managed 9 hits and only one run. I don't really feel like looking up numbers right now, but I can promise you that the last couple opposing starters (including the likes of James McDonald, Travis Wood, and Charlie Morton) have had no problem picking apart the 'Stros lineup. I would estimate that the starters' ERA against us in the last couple days is probably in the high 1's.
The only positive thing to come out of this: Jose Valdez pitched two innings of relief and didn't give up a run. Either way, he's gone once Jason Bourgeois (or even Jason Michaels) comes back, so it was perhaps just a good parting shot by Valdez.
And yes, I do have another questioning of a Brad Mills decision. I promise I'm not trying to be pessimistic here; I was a huge supporter of the Mills hiring, as I believed Manny Acta wouldn't be a very good fit for the club. In retrospect, he might have made the team better, but that's not the point now. Anyhow, I thought putting J.R. Towles second in the lineup was a bit optimistic. He went 0-for-4, including a groundout to end a bases loaded rally. I'm still not really a believer in Towles yet, as I can easily remember the days when he was under the Mendoza line. However, I think he does deserve to be moved up in the lineup, along with Humberto Quintero, though only to maybe the 6th or 7th spot. My favorite lineup still looks like this (considering the fact that Bourgeois is injured):
Bourn, CF
Barmes, SS
Pence, RF
Lee, LF
Wallace, 1B
Johnson, 3B
Quintero/Towles, C
Hall, 2B
While I was a heavy advocate of Brett Wallace for Cleanup Spot, I've now rescinded my request, as he's gone a bit cold lately. I do believe, however, that batting him below the likes of Bill Hall is absurd.
Lastly, thank goodness that Ed Wade and Mills finally came to their senses and designated Nelson Figueroa for assigment. Sergio Escalona should be a good lefty not named Fernando Abad to have in the bullpen, and holding onto pitchers like Figueroa is what wastes time and wins for a young team that needs them. He proved that he couldn't handle the number 5 spot, and then he proved he couldn't handle being in the bullpen, so a move to Oklahoma City (or hopefully, a release) is just simply the right move, emotions aside.
Brett Myers will take on Homer Bailey in game 2 of the series tomorrow at Minute Maid Park. 7:05 start as usual.
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